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After each game that I covered this past high school sports season, I realized that prep athletics can be taken a lot of more seriously than I imagined.
I played basketball in high school — never did anything that great — but I always viewed it as a fun time, with a chance to bond with teammates and being able to proudly wear my jersey with the school’s name stitched on the front.
However, the landscape of prep sports continues to change year after year since I “played,” as the pressure of winning and producing mounts on the kids.
We have to remember that high school athletes aren’t paid — they pay to play and want to have fun doing what they love. Nonetheless, that hasn’t stopped outside influences from pressuring these 15- to 18-year-olds to be the “best in the world,” earn that college scholarship and play professionally.
According to ncaa.org, the official Web site for collegiate athletics, less than 1 percent of high school athletes eventually hit the big time in the pros. I’m sure some people have heard that before, and blow it off, but there is actually more to life than just athletics.
One night this year, I remember walking into a pretty prestigious visiting gym, with the home team hosting one of the three schools I cover. The stands were filled for that weeknight game between two heated league rivals, but what I saw just left a bad taste in my mouth.
As the home team held a pretty substantial lead with no inkling of a comeback being made by the opposition, the student section and even the parents were still up in arms over what they felt were “horrible calls” being made by the referees.
They stood, they pointed, they stomped their feet and they even yelled at the opposing players, who looked like they just wanted the game to be over with and get out of the gym.
So when is it enough when it comes down to beating another high school team?
Sure, winning is nice, but where has some of the sportsmanship and winning with class gone these days?
While I believe most schools and their fans get it right, there were always those very few that stood out to me from this past year that left me wondering, why on earth do some people take this so seriously?
None of those schools are from my local area, thankfully.
It’s a sensitive issue, especially for parents, who always want the best for their kids and really, I can’t blame them. But when do parents cross the line when it pertains to their child athlete?
There are several reasons why parents or school supporters go a little overboard, according to sportsparenting.org.
q Youth sports is no longer just a game: With increasing expenses for families to make sure their kids play all-year long, and the increasing national media attention to high school sports, the innocence for preps has dwindled.
q End product vs Process: This is the belief that there is more focus on stats and mistakes than giving encouragement to the athletes.
q Misplaced self-esteem: Success or failure directly correlates with a kids’ self-esteem, as some parents “relate to their kid solely as an athlete” and nothing more.
Again, I want to say that this message isn’t for all parents as I truly believe most of them allow the space for their child when they’re on the court or on the field, letting the coach do his or her job.
Then there are those few who take it a step, or possibly 10 steps, further than they should.
This is simply a plea to allow the fun back into high school athletics. Not all kids will play collegiate sports, so most of them want to look back on their high school playing days positively.
So let’s just have fun.
Alex Tam is the sports editor of the Molalla Pioneer, a sister newspaper of the Wilsonville Spokesman. |
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